Amy Ella Blanchard

Amy Ella Blanchard (June 28, 1854 – July 4, 1926) was a prolific American writer of children's literature.

Early life

Amy Ella Blanchard was born in Baltimore in 1854, the daughter of Daniel Harris Blanchard and Sarah Reynolds.

She was educated in public schools and then studied art in New York City and Philadelphia.

Career

Amy Ella Blanchard was at first a teacher of art at the Woman's College in Baltimore, now Goucher College. She taught school while studying art. She then taught drawing and painting for two years in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Her first poem was published in a Salem newspaper when she was 16 years old. Three years later she published her first book, but it was not until 1893 that she obtained her first success with her stories.

In 1888 she published her first book, and the first collaboration with Ida Waugh, Bonny Bairns, with the Worthington & Co. firm of New York. In this book the usual order was reversed, and the pictures were illustrated with verses. The combination was not only pleasant but pretty. The lithographs were beautifully executed and did full justice to the drawings, which were of a much higher quality than usually appeared in children's picture books. The verses that accompanied them made a pleasant jingle with just sense enough to make them attractive to the chubby critic.

Personal life

Amy Ella Blanchard was a lifelong companion of her artist collaborator Ida Waugh (1846-1919). They met when Waugh was still living with her parents and Blanchard was hired as tutor of Waugh's younger brother, future painter Frederick Judd Waugh.